Speed-controlling apparatus for internal-combustion engines



v N 2 Mal 'ch .15 1927. E. T. HULL I 1,6 0 763 SPEED CONTROLLING APPARATUS FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed July 25. 1922 2 She ts-Sheet 1 March 15 1927.

E. 'r. HULL SPEED CONTROLLING APPARATUS FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed July 25, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 aww fi Pat nted- M... 1 927. a

UNITED STATES?" ISATENTIOFFICE.

7 nnwann r. HULL, or new YORK, 1\l'. Y.

' srnnnsconrnommc hrrmarns roR"m'rnnNA -comnus'r1o1 nncmns.

Application flied m 25,

This invention is an improved speed .con-

trolling means for internal combustion oilgines, certainifeatures thereof beingparticularly applicable to'engines serving asthe motive power for vehicles. My improved .mechanism. provides for both .automatic and manual control of the throttle, the .throttlejbeing automaticallyopened and closed in accordance with, variations in the load to maintain a substantially definite speed which may. be set of varied 1 at will by the manual control. I use the' word manual throughout this case its broad meaning to indicate not merely operspeed reduced to; minimum or idling speed? by movement of the clutch pedal, and said de sired speed is reestablished automatically upon the return-of the clutch pedal to nor- 'termined' upon by cause theengine to slow down, and re al I;

mal position. Thus the desired speed de the driver will be automatically maintained, but in case a temporaryslo wing down is necessary, asior grade crossings, pressure on theclutchiaedal will of pressure on the clutch pedal wil'1 reh establish the-automatic governing and bringji Fi 1 is atop, plan view showing some- 'footback and forth for dpera the engine back touts previous speed. The driver may maintain his foot in operative relationship to the brake and clutch pedal without thenecessity-of shiftin one ion 0? the brake and .accelerator alternately in con- .gested trafiic conditions. Although the engine speed control may be operated by the clutch pedal, only on a full movement of A the latter'for disengaging the clutc 'h, jpref erablytherontroh is operated by only a slight 'or limited movement of vthe pedal so .that'by' a slightpressure of the foot the) en'- gine and car are slowed down, and ,.'by' a further movement theclutchisdiSengaged to permit the car to stop and the engine to idle. The re-engagementbf the. clutch and then removal of all pressure on' t' he pedal permits the car to at once pick up speed to the previously established limit. -T he mechanism whereby the aforementioned results are accomplisheddoes not interfere with a 1922. Serial No. 577,462.

temporary speeding up'fbeyond s 'd Jimit by pressmg the foot accelerator=or op rating the steering wheel throttle lever, and such speedingup does not disturb the. set of the automaticv governor or the .return to the desired fixed speed when the foot or hand operated accelerator a is returned to normal posltion. Q

A further object of my invention isto provide means whereby the control of -t 1e speed by the operation of the clutch pedal tends to reduce rather than increase the" norinal resistance to clutch disengagement movement of the pedal. r

A- further object is to provlde means-for positivelyopening. or closing the throttle by the manual control, and for operating it from the automatic governor, through yielding connections whereby the rapid .op-

oration by the manual'means does not apply excessive strain to'the delicate parts of the,

governor.

A further ObJGCt of my invention is to so design the parts that the mechanism may be used in connection With the standard throttle these drawings my. improved devlcem. Fig.2 is aside elevation, and Figs. 3 and 4 are sections on the lines 3-.-3 and 4-.4 respectively of'Fig. '1, and on a larger scale,

V-type with an; upwardly extending intake .duitsfll to a pair of intake manifolds 12. The intake conduit 10 is provided witha throttle 13 mounted, on. a rock shaft or spindle 14 .which may be oscillated to open and close the throttle. p V v The standard parts for the manual con-. trol of the throttle include a hand operated lever. 15 mounted on the steering wheel and a ,footope'rated lever 16 in the usual posi tion. The hand lever is mounted on a rod 17 which projects through the steering col-I I have illustrated my invention as applied to a motorzvehicle having a motor of the necessitating. extensive alterations .in the what diagrammatically a portion of ainotor vehicle equipped with a preferred form." of

conduit 10 delivering through branch con-Q umn and is provided with a gear 18gineshifi5 with a segment 19, which latter 1s necte by a link 20 to one armof a bell crank lever 21. The foot lever ordinarily known as the accelerator, is mounted on a pivot 22, and

has an arm connected. by a link 23 to an other arm of the bell crank lever 21. A

- ,third arm of the bell crank lever 21 is conv in accordance with the speed oftheengifie may be employed;

'the body of the engine.

matic governor hereinafter referred to, and

nected by a link 24 to a lever,arm 25 on the throttle spindle 14. Thus, by pressin on the accelerator 16, or operating the han lever 15 in the proper direction, a pull is e erted on the rod 24 andthe spindle 14 1s "turned in a counter-clockwise direction .as 15 result of manuallycontrolling the throttle bythe use of the hand or foot. The rod 20.

has the usual lost motion connection with the bell crank lever 21 to permit operation of the throttle without movement of the hand lever 15, and .the bell crank lever has lost motion connections with the rod 24 to permit operation of thethrottle by the autowithout operation of the bell crank lever. i

For automatically controlling the throttle to maintain any desiredfixed speed, I employ a suitable governor driven by and operating in accordance with the speed of the engine. I do not wish to be restricted to any particular ,type of governor, asany means which will exert an operating .force The device illustramd is of theball governor type, and is mounted in a. casing; 26' carried by suitable supports 27 attachedto I have not illustrated any of the details of this governor, as t hey form no portion of my present invention, but the parts maybe substantially identical, with those illustrated in my"copending application, Serial No; 538,813, fil6d February 23rd, 1922.- The main shaftof the governor has a pinion 28 meshing with a gear 29 on a shaft 30. The latter maybe any suitable shaft forming a part of the engine, as for instance that employed in driving the fan 31 or other part'ssuch. as the magneto, generator, water pump, or the like. 60.

The governor illustrated has a non-rotatable longitudinally movable 'rod which moves toward the right from the position illustrated in Fig.2 upon increasing the speed of the engine. This rod has pivotal connec-; tions to a lever 33 intermediate of the ends of ftheflatter, and one end of this lever is, connected to the throttle spindle 14 by the mechanism shown particularly in Fig. 4.

-An arm' '34 is secured intermediate of its ends to the throttle spindle 14, alnd one end is connected by a tension spring 35 with the up er end of thelever 33. The opposite end of the arm 34 is connected by a pair of pivotally connected links 36 and 37 to the upper end of the lever 33. The link 36 normally lies approximately parallel to the arm 34, while the link 37 normally lies substantially parallel to thespring 35 and substantially at right angles to the lever 33. The upper ends of the arm 34and link/36 are adjacent to each other, and the parts other, but they can be, separated by an extension or stretching of the spring35. Thus,-

if the lower end of the lever 33 befixed, an increase in speed of the engine will movethe'rod .32 endwise and swing theupper end of the lever 33 toward the right (see tle toward closedposition. For this opera tion the spring 35 will keep the upper ends of the link 36 and arm '34 together. Ob-

are 'sodesigned that they cannot pass each -Figs. 2-and 4f and will thus move the,throt viously a slowing down of the engine will move therodtoward the left and will swing the arm 34 counterclockwise about the throttle spindle, to open the throttle and permit 4 the engine to pick up tothe fixed or desired speed.

. For setting the governor or establishing the speed at which it is desired to'maintainthe engine, I provide means for varying the position of the lower end or fulcrum of the lever 33. As shown, this means includes a bell. crank lever 38 having an. arm 3% connected by a link 40 to the lower end o'f'the lever '33. Another arm 41-of the bell crank lever is connectedby a rod 42 to an arm 43 on a' rock sha ft 44'substantially par-' allel to the steering column and mounted in brackets 44 carried by the latter. The

.upperend of the rock shaft 44 is provided with an operating handle or lever 45 mov-- able over a segment 46 whereby the levermay be locked in any desired position. By the" oscillation of. this lever and the rock shaft the lower end of the lever 33 whichnormally serves as a fulcrum may be ad- 'justed. at will. A movementof the fulcrum of the lever 33 toward the right will open the throttle, and the resulting increased- "speed of the engine will thereafterbe' maintainedj by the action of the governor. It will be noted that a rotation of the'throttle spindle by the movement of the lever 33 also moves the arm 25' and rod 24,:but due to the lost motion-connections between the rod 24 and the bell cranklever 21, the latter is not moved, andthus' the load on the governoris reduced to a minimum.

To slow down the engine to idling speed ing mechanism. The clutch pedalf4Q is mounted on a pivot 50 and is connected by a link 51 to an arm 52 on the clutch operating rock shaft 53, so that by pressure on the clutch pedal the rock shaft is caused to turn in a-clockwise direction. I 'have-not illustrated the clutch nor the'usual heavy spring for normally holdin the clutch parts enga d, but it will be un erstood that the clutc .may be of the usualtype and oper- /ated in the usual manner from the rock shaft 53. Merely as,a diagrammatic representation of the heavy c utch spring, I have shown a'spring 54 operating as the equi alen't of, or a diagrammatic representation 'of the mainclutch spring. "The rod 48 is ,20

pivotally connected to an arm55 secured to' whenthe clutch is -disengaged by ressure on the clutch pedal, the rod 48 will. e'positively pushed'to swing the'bell crank lever v38 and move the fulcrum of the lever 33 toward the left. 'A suitable spring '56 is employed for slightly assisting in this operation and acting againstthe main clutch spring 54. The force of the spring 56 is more than suflicient to overcome the spring 57, and if necessary the spring 35, and the inertia of the parts operated by the rod '48. Therefore, the closing of the throttle by pressure on the clutch pedal does not make the pedal any harder to operate than without my improved m echanism, andin fact the-spring 56 aids slightly in the operation of the pedal.

The arm 39 of the bell crank lever is also provided with a spring 57 which nor-- mally tends-to move the fulcrum of the lever 33 toward the right and take up lost motion inthe parts. The lengths of thearm 55 in respect to-the bellt'ynk lever arm 47 is preferably such tha omparatively; slight movement of the clutch pedal 49 will operate to close the throttle, and before the clutch pedal hasbeen moved far enough to -'actually disengage the clutch. Thus the driver, by applying a slight pressure .on the slows down the engine to.the

' desiredextent. Thus the-car may be slowed down for a grade crossing or other traflic' condition without disengaging the clutch "and a further slowing down or stopping may be accomplishednby further pressure on the clutch pedal so as to actually disengage the clutch. c

- 1 It will be noted that by reason 'of the operative connections between the throttle and the actuating mechanism the. operation of one is not in any way prevented by any particular ad ustment of another. For instance, if the clutch be disengaged when tivelg higher speed, the arm 41 of the bell crank lever'may slide down on the rod 42 without moving the latter.

If the driver desires tonace the engine when the governor controlling lever 45 is set ,for'low speed, thethrottle may be posih opened by either the hand lever 15 or t e 24 and the throttle spindle arm 25. This will extend the spring 35 without moving the lever 33, or putting undue strain on the governor.- If the governor controlling'lever 45 he suddenlymoved: from one extreme position to the other, the throttle will instantly follow by a swinging of the lever 33 and the lost motion connection between the rod 24 and the bell crank lever 21 will per mit movement of the 'rod without swinging :the lever.- the, clutch operating rock shaft 53 so that If the driver desires to race the engine while the clutch is disengaged, this-will be 'permitted by reason of the spring 35 which will let the throttle spindle be turned by rod 24.

closing of the throttle. This throttle constitutes merely oneform of fuel controller internal combustion engine. 0 a motor "vehicle, including a fuel supply controller,

means for moving said controller to idling speed position upon'disengagi'ng the clutch between the engine and the mechanism driven thereby, and manually actuated op controller-to idling speed position upon disengaging the clutch between the engine and .the mechanism driven thereby, and inde pendent manually actuated operating mechanism for said controller whereby the speed of the engine maybe vvaried at will while the clutch is disengaged,

3. The combination with the fuel supply controller of a motor vehicle engine, of a ;lever'- for operating thesame, an automatic the; governor controlling lever 45 is set for governor driven-by, the engine and connected oot lever 16 working through the rod.

' In-the mechanismillustrated the speed of the engine is controlled by an opening and about the endof the rod-32 as a fulcrum,

'- 1; Means for controlling the s eed of the I the position of the fulcrum of-the lever to close the fuelcontroller upon' disengaging thecluteh between the engine and the mechanism driven thereby, and manually actuated means independent of said lever for operating the fuel controller to vary the speed of the engine at will.

4. A motor vehicle having in combination" with the engine throttle, clutch pedal and clutch spring, an automatic speed governor having operative connections with the throt tle to maintain the speed of the engine'substantially constant. and means actuated by the clutch pedal for varying the operative relationship between the governor and throttleto reduce the speed of the engine when the clutch is disengaged, said means includclutch spring. a,

5. The combination with the throttle valve of a motor vehicle engine of a pair of separate levers connected thereto, an automatic governor driven by said engine, a lever.

connected intermediate of its ends to said governor, yielding connections between, one

'ing "a spring acting in opposition to the} end of said last mentioned lever and one of, I

said first mentioned levers, manually operablemeans positively connected to the other ofv said first mentioned levers for operating said throttle, manually operable means for adjusting the normal position of the other endlof said third mentioned lever, and means for moving said last mentioned end of said last mentioned lever to close the throttle upon disengaging the clutch between the engine and the mechanism driven thereby.

York and State of New York this 24th, day of July A. D. 1922 EDWARD 1. HULL.

.' Signed at New Yorkin the county of New 

